Chief wants her nation’s side put on the record

“Over reaction” followed by the federal government’s refusal to meet with chief and council has forced Attawapiskat First Nation to continue with court action it initiated in January.

“What was done to us was the wrong way of recognizing our kind of emergency,” said Chief Theresa Spence.

In November, the federal government relieved Spence and council of their duties, appointing instead Jacques Marion as third-party manager. Last month, council received a letter from the regional office of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada stating that Marion would be relieved of his duties on or before April 19 because “of the success that has been achieved in addressing the urgent health and safety requirements of the 25 affected families that were identified last winter.”
Members were living in tents and sheds and multiple families were crowded into single homes. Some families were living in hovels, without proper toilet facilities or heat as the coldest part of winter approached.

Spence believes the move to restore council was made because the federal government realized that third-party management was not the way to deal with the housing issue. She also said that with Marion working from his office in Winnipeg, he was out of touch with band business and bills went unpaid.

In an email response, Michelle Perron, spokesperson for Aboriginal Affairs, said, “The third-party manager has paid all invoices and allowances for which he has received appropriate documentation from the First Nation. The First Nation is aware of the requirements needed to process any further payments for eligible activities.”

A judicial review in federal court had been slated for April 24. After repeated attempts failed to garner a meeting with Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan or any department official, both with or without legal counsel, Spence said the band decided to proceed with the judicial review challenging the government’s decision to appoint third-party management.

“We need to know why we were put in that third-party position to begin with. We need to proceed with this court action to know what really happened,” said Spence.
Perron said because the matter is before the court, “it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

On Nov. 30, 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement saying “management problems” had forced him to replace Attawapiskat’s chief and council.

However, Spence contends the “management problems” lay with the federal government’s refusal to listen to Attawapiskat’s concerns, to communicate with its regional AANDC office as well as to take action quickly.
“They over-reacted to the situation because they responded too late. They didn’t respond immediately to our emergency,” she said.

The third-party manager was appointed to “support measures to address the urgent health and safety issues” and to administer federal funding, said Perron.

Attawapiskat declared a state of emergency on Oct. 28 over unsafe living conditions. Spence said an appropriate response would have been to send in Red Cross immediately and for the federal government to work with the First Nation to resolve the housing crisis. Instead, a third-party manager was put in place.

During Marion’s time, the federal government purchased 22 modular homes at a cost of $2.2 million and hauled them to the northern community. Repairs were carried out on the trailers, renovations were begun on three houses, and the healing lodge was retrofitted. Spence said there were some delays in moving families into the modular homes because of frozen water pipes.

She also noted that some community members were upset at being jumped on the housing list. However, because a state of emergency was declared, Spence said priority had to be given to those living in tents and sheds. Those who were passed-up were living in over-crowded houses.

Spence said maintaining the court date was important in allowing Attawapiskat council to set the record straight both with the Canadian public and its own members.

“All we did was ask (the government) for help and they created a problem,” she said. “They did a lot of damage within our leadership, within our community and with the Canadian citizens.”

After figures were thrown out by Prime Minister Harper, Attawapiskat responded with figures of its own, stating that the per capita funding received from Aboriginal Affairs was $10,000 and not the $50,000 claimed in the House of Commons and that the funding was not paid directly to individual members but to the band to cover the costs of providing services and conducting reserve business.

Spence said she and council will be meeting with their membership in May to discuss what happened, the actions taken by the government, and look at future plans.

Spence, who is halfway through her first three-year term, said there have been calls for her resignation.

“I did nothing wrong. All we did as leadership, we called for assistance to assist people who lived in these kinds of conditions,” she said.

Council will continue with the business started before third-party management took over, including working on the capital plan that involves housing, acquiring additional land and looking at water intake.

“This crisis has been going on for so many years, but it’s time to really sit down with the government, say let’s do it together, not to blame anybody. We know that’s not going to happen overnight…. It will take a commitment of a timeframe of working with each other…. It will take the whole community working together,” Spence said.